December will be the busiest month for Emirates’ Irish operation since February 2020.

“We’re seeing very strong demand on Australia for Christmas, but we’re seeing equally strong demand for January, February and March,” he said. “Our intention is that by summer we’ll be back up to 14 [flights per week to Dublin from Dubai].”

The airline is currently flying one return service a day between Dublin and Dubai using a Boeing 777 and filling an average of half the 360 seats available on each flight. That’s in line with the percentage of seats currently being filled on Emirates routes across its network.

Prior to the pandemic, it had been filling between 85pc to 90pc of seats between Dublin and Dubai and had even been eyeing a third daily service to Dublin.

“We would expect the seat factor to move into the highs 70s/early 80s, as we get into quarter one of next year,” said Mr Corneille. “That’s going to be dependent on more Australian traffic.”

Before the Covid crisis, Emirates was carrying more than 40,000 people a month on the Dublin-Dubai route.

“Pre-Covid, 15pc to 20pc of our business [from Dublin] terminated in Dubai and the rest transferred to Australasia, the Far East, to India, the Philippines, and Africa,” said Mr Corneille.

“As we’ve gone through the pandemic, that has actually flipped almost on its head. We’ve been doing 70pc of our business into Dubai. Customers and tourists are discovering Dubai for the first time,” he added.

However, since travel restrictions were eased by Australian authorities, Mr Corneille said there’s been a broader surge in bookings to Melbourne and Sydney.

Before the crisis, Ireland was one of Emirates’ top three feeder markets for the Australian market.

Mr Corneille said cargo traffic has remained strong between Dublin and Dubai. The Boeing 777 it uses on the route can carry 25 tonnes of cargo.

“Pre-pandemic, that would have been made up of a lot of food – salmon, cheese, eggs, crisps, and a lot of pharmaceuticals,” he said.

“We would have carried tonnes of Botox, and things like the ink that’s injected into the human body before X-rays,” added Mr Corneille.

“We were carrying significant amounts of baby milk formula… that was going to China and Australia, and live animals as well.”

He said as the pandemic began, cargo demand rose significantly across the Emirates network. It carried a lot of PPE equipment and vaccines.

“We were able to keep very important export supply lines between Ireland and the rest of the world open throughout the pandemic,” said Mr Corneille. “While we might have carried more of certain items, the mix never changed that much. We’re now back to the dairy, the food, the pharmaceuticals and so on.”